Tell me if this scene doesn’t sound f mi iar.

I sit amid a packed a d ence to hear a

world renown m co gist e plain why fu gi are b co ing a ri ing and larg ly u treat-

able threat. Sounds i te es ing and dr ma ic, right?

Alas, not if this m co gist can help it. He red up a Powe Point pr se t tion that

i clu ed slides dense with u pr nounc able words like ph topatho gy and en-

theogen. His charts and graphs were more co plex and my t r ous than h er glyph-

ics. You need a Rose ta Stone to co pr hend his me sage.

It got worse. He turned the back of his $3,500 He rin bone tweed jac et t ward

the a d ence, and then b gan to mu ble aloud every word on each slide. You would

have thought that we, the a d ence, whom he had i vi ed, were i re vant to his pre-

se t tion. My st dents have a wo de ful term for this all too f mi iar pe fo mance.

They call it “Death by Powe Point.”

While i co pr he s ble, Dr. He rin bone’s pe fo mance r mains a good le son.

It re r sents ever thing not to do when pr sen ing to an a d ence, even if your goal is

to pu ish peers who have bored you sens less with their own pr se t tions.

D ing it right ma ters. D spite the rise of Twi ter, Slack and Zoom, we live in a time

when spea ing and pr sen ing have b come a big part of all mo ern pr fe sions,

whether it be un ve s ty, bus ness or sc ence. Yet so many a lege ly s phi t ca ed,
well-e ca ed pe ple do it so ba ly; this, even though most un ve s ties t day r quire

st dents to study pu lic pr se t tion as part of their r quired cu ric lum. This is a rid-

dle for which I have no a swer. That said, I do know how you can pr vent you self

from co mi ting “Death by Powe Point.”

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 Why li ten to a writer when it comes to spea ing? B cause I have had to sell m self

and my work to gain an a d ence for the se en books that I have wri ten in the past 20

years. That r quired me to turn my work into coun less pr se t tions for all sorts of au-

d ences, large and small. My pr se t tions have won rin ing a plause from halls

packed with some of the world’s lea ing pu lic health and go er ment o cials,

charmed clas es full of i di fe ent co lege st dents, and brought a d t r ums full of

school chi dren to their knees in laug ter.

Be ter yet, I have been lucky. I have had the good fo tune to cross paths with and

o serve some true ma ters in pr se t tion, such as Steve Jobs and Ted Tur er. And

I’ve read many of the cla sics on pu lic spea ing, such as C cero and Seneca.

Still, I am larg ly self-taught. I learned the hard way through tr al and e ror. Em-

ph sis on e ror. Still seared in my me ry is the rst time I tried to speak Ch nese in a

packed a d t r um at T inghua Un ve s ty, Ch na’s MIT. It tri gered an e pl sion of

laug ter among the s phi t ca ed i ternational a d ence. Not quite the r sponse I

had hoped for. I learned la er that I had pr nounced T inghua in a way that meant

“frog.”

These tr als and trib l tions taught me how to e fe tiv ly hold and e ligh en an
a d ence. I su cee ed through wiel ing all the core pri c ples di cussed in this book:

The Art of Brev ty, Show, Not Tell and The Ar ful Tease. In short, e fe tive pr se t tions

are a ot er form of terse, fact-dr ven st r telling.

Now, back to Dr. He rin b ne. Our renowned m co gist has shown us how to

lose an a d ence. Let’s walk through step by step how to win one over.

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 Google Slides or Powe Point should ne er be the ce ter of any e fe tive pr se t tion.

R search has shown -- and you’ve pro bly have e p r enced it you self -- the mo-

ment Po e Slide po ers up, the brain po ers down. That’s true of both pr se ters

and their a d ences.

That doesn’t mean slide pr se t tions can’t be po e ful tools. You just have to

learn how to use them e fe tiv ly. That b gins with this u de stan ing: Any vi ual pre-

se t tion is only a prop. Its pu pose is to su pl ment or e hance a pr se t tion.

You, the spea er, should a ways be front and ce ter of any pr se t tion, with an

ear a ways a tuned to your a d ence. R me ber, any pr se t tion is not about you,

and ce tai ly not about any slideshow. It’s about the a d ence. More on this la er.

That said, when used e fe tiv ly, a mu t m dia slideshow can be a po e ful tool to

e hance a pr se t tion. The best pr se t tions use a rich mix of e ments, i clu ing

ph tos, video and sound.

Still, u ing mu t m dia m t al can be treac e ous. Too many times I have seen

a d ences b come lost in a co plex video or sound, tur ing spea ers into props.

Then they stru gle to r gain an a d ences’ a te tion. Mu t m dia works best as a

tease, so sni pets are best.

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 Here’s the key to any slideshow pr se t tion: Keep it si ple but not si pli tic. If that

sounds f mi iar, it should. It’s not only a big theme of this book, but also the u de ly-

ing pri c ple that guides all s phi t ca ed and su ces ful co m n c tions.

Co vers ly, long, dense and wordy slideshows r ect a pr se ter’s lack of i tel-

le t al ri or. If you didn’t bot er to ure out the mea ing of your m t al, then why

should the a d ence do it for you?

The key here is to nd a me rable tak away me sage. What big idea or i pres-

sion do you want your a d ence to walk away with? Think of it as a mat ematician who

boils down 20 pages of proofs to a si ple equ tion. Or as the ope ing line of an ef-

fe tive pitch, as we di cussed in the cha ter “The Po er of a Good Idea.”

Here are some e a ples of co plex r searched boiled down to a me rable

tak away me sage:

- Fu gal i fe tions will kill a ri ing nu ber of pe ple wit out new trea ments.

- Pr fe sio al bas ball will fade u less it ures out how to a tract younger

fans.

- O line ga ing has i ni ed an e pl sion in i l gal ga bling that the gov-

er ment is stru gling to co trol.

Fin ing a co pelling tak away me sage is the si gle har est part of any pr se t tion.

It’s an a d ous jou ney that b gins with ma te ing your su ject. By ma te ing, I don’t

mean the abi ty to hoover up ple ty of facts and data and r gu g tate them on com-

mand. Any free AI pr gram can do that t day. I stead, what I mean is this: The abi ty

to cull mea ing, and be ter yet, i sight from your r search. What mea in ful and i ter-

es ing st ry can your r search tell us?

4



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 To make your tak away me sage me rable, you need to a chor it in an a di-

ence’s mind. The best way to do that is to r peat the me sage three times in a pr sen-

t tion: at the b gi ning, in the mi dle and at the end. The brain loves re t tion, but

too much is tir some. Three seems to be the magic nu ber.

The hard work of d ve o ing a tak away me sage pays big di dends. It demon-

strates to an a d ence your dil gence and hard work, which will win you r spect. And,

wit out that r spect, no one will take e ther you or your pr se t tion s r ou ly.

Here’s a de i is ly fun way to see the po er of an e fe tive tak away me sage.

Next time you are forced to sit through a ra bling or boo ish pr se t tion, ask the

pr se ter — whether he is a pr fe sor, an e pert, or an e e tive — this si ple ques-

tion: What’s the si ni cance of your work?

Watch as the pr se ter’s face turns red as he spu ters and bo bles about for an

a swer. Then n tice how the a d ence r sponds to his fu bling r sponse. That’s not

how you want an a d ence to r spond to you and your pr se t tion. If you have done

the hard i te le t al work to nd a big tak away me sage, you’ll have a ready a swer

to any que tion about the si ni cance of your work. And your a d ence will r mem-

ber it.

5
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 How you give a pr se t tion is as i po tant as what you present. As in wri ing, you

can ne er take your a d ence for gran ed. Not for a m ment. Few will pay a te tion

u til you e ta lish a ra port that leads to a d logue, even if it’s an u sp ken one. All

su ces ful pr se t tions feel like a co ve s tion with an a d ence. You know you’ve

achieved that if your pr se t tion prompts more que tions than you have time to an-

swer. As they say in Ho l wood, a ways leave the a d ence wan ng more.

Let’s rst talk about what not to do. Novices tend to make one, or all, of four big

mi takes.

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 R sist the urge to i tr duce you self, or say “He lo.” While you might think you are just

tr ing to be invi ing and frien ly, this pra tice is, in fact, a big turn-off. R me ber, in

most i stances, the a d ence a ready knows who you are. E ther they are a me ber of

your class, your team, or your pr se t tion is lis ed in a pr gram. More i po tan ly, an

a d ence doesn’t care about who you are u til you do som thing wo thy of a te tion.

A ot er co mon mi take is to start tal ing while in m tion. Nerves drive many

b gi ners to start tal ing while ri ing from their seats or wal ing onto a stage. M tion

di tracts the a d ence from what’s b ing said. Worse, it co veys the me sage that said

pr se ter is ne vous and not in co trol.

Mor over, r sist the tem t tion to launch hea long into a pr se t tion once in

front of your a d ence.

Both of these roo ie mi takes are based on a false a sum tion: that an a d ence

is e ger to hear what you have to say. Alas, this is rarely true. Pe ple might be there

b cause it’s a r quired class, or their school or co p ny paid for — or r quired — them

to a tend. Ot ers show up out of a sense of obli tion to su port a co league. Ask

you self: How many times have you r lu tan ly a ten ed a le ture or pr se t tion?

Any pr se ter’s rst cha lenge is to win over an a d ence. How to do so may seem
cou te i t itive.

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 How, then, should a spea er start? Not ing speaks lou er than s lence. Sounds crazy,

right? But co si er this: S lence breaks an a d ence’s e pe t tion that som one will

just start yakking. That, in i self, is dr ma ic and i te es ing, dra ing a te tion. S lence

is e p cia ly e fe tive when it fo lows spea ers who have made one of the roo ie mis-

takes e plained above.

For s lence to work, it must be used e fe tiv ly. Here’s how to do it. Walk to the

ce ter of the stage and stop. Or, if in a more i t mate se ting, such as a clas room or

co fe ence hall, wade into the a d ence. Let your gaze sweep the faces tur ing to-

ward you, ma ing eye co tact with ever one that you can.

Don’t b gin spea ing u til you feel most eyes are on you. Trust me, you will feel it,

but it takes time, up to ve mi utes. This is the most di cult m ment. You’ll feel ner-

vous e e gy egging you on to just start tal ing.

Now that you’ve got pe ple’s a te tion, you have to d li er. That’s why you can’t

open by sa ing “He lo.” Nor can you launch into a co plex or b wi de ing e pl na-

tion. Di to for an i co pr he s ble slide heavy with text or a co fu ing grap ic. A

blurred ph to or ga bled sound clip is the kiss of death.

I stead, e fe tive pr se ters, much like wri ers, open in an i te es ing place. That
might mean u ing a provoc tive que tion, or a ca t va ing quote. How about an ar-

res ing sound or pi ture. Ope ings are only li i ed by one’s ima n tion.

Co si er this e a ple, which is among the best ope ings I ever saw. And it was

from an u de gra ate, no less. Her name was Abby, and this is what she did.

Abby stood in front of the class and asked, “Can you tell me what’s di fe ent about

what I am wea ing?” Every eye turned to scr t nize Abby’s de im jac et, tee shirt and

kh ki pants. Sta dard pu lic un ve s ty garb, right?

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 Wrong, Abby e plained to her my t ed but c r ous a d ence. Every piece of

clot ing she wore had been made from biodegra able m t al. Her a d ence was

hooked, e ger to e plain how this could be.

Abby’s pe fo mance did more than hook her a d ence. It also re r sen ed the

theme of her pr se t tion: Pe ple could dress pe fec ly well wit out clot ing made

from po lu ing sy the ic m t r als.

I co si er Abby’s e tire pe fo mance as a mo el of e fe tive pr se t tion. She

used Powe Point as a prop, not as the ce ter of a te tion. Not once did Abby turn her

face away from her a d ence, kee ing eye co tact and spea ing d rec ly to them. Nor

did she read off the text in any slide, each of which was easy to read and u de stand.

She also i co p ra ed a rich mix of i te es ing grap ics, ph tos, and video.

Clea ly, Abby had put a lot of thought and e fort into her slides, yet she only made

it through about half of them. Why? The a d ence of fe low st dents kept i te rup ing

her with i trig ing and provoc tive que tions. Abby a lowed he self to go where the

a d ence was ta ing her, a swe ing each que tion with aplomb. She, in turn, asked

her own pro ing que tions. In short, Abby had achieved the ni vana of any su ces ful

pr se t tion: A me rable co ve s tion with her a d ence.

Our poor mi gui ed Dr. He rin bone could learn a lot from Abby.

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